The Carnivore Project

Tipping Prompts?

Some US restaurants have started 'helping' foreign diners with cards that explain tipping. Is this a step too far? Or only fair, given the cultural differences when it comes to tipping? (Debate over at Zagat)

My gut feel - it seems a little gauche. I'm fully empathetic to the plight of the service industry, and how annoying it would be to have ill-tipping (through ignorance or spite) diners, but tipping is still ostensibly optional. Tipping is something a social contract, not a legal one - else it would be embedded in the cost of the meal itself (like in the UK). To remind diners of the 'rules' of tipping is like a pregnant woman aggressively demanding that she get a seat on the train. Yes, she should have one, but the act of asking makes everyone defensive about it...

I love overseas visitors

(Staplers and hole punch are 100% London though)

Hamburgers in London: The Wheatsheaf and Smith's of Smithfield

So here I am, an American living in London.  Occasionally friends or a family member will ask me what it is that I miss most about the US, probably as a way of filling awkward conversational silences, but perhaps in the hopes that I'll say something gloriously clever, or at least funny.  But my answer is always the same:  I miss hamburgers. 

(My fingers insist on typing the word out as "haumburgers" this morning - perhaps this is phonetically symbolic of my ever-increasing Englishization, which manifests itself as an enormously pretentious-sounding Mid-Atlantic accent?*)

So, yes.  Hamburgers.  It's not that they're unavailable in this city, or even that they're not very good.  They are as widely available as in any American city, and many are very tasty.  But they are not perfect. 

Global Domination Begins with Pizza

"One of the officers Furlanis was training asked him to specify the precise distance at which olives should be spaced on a pizza" (The Guardian)

The Bacon Nation

Heather Lauer, author & online guru, has founded the Bacon Nation. It is just a Ning site and not an independent state, but we can always hope...

Bacon 2.0

Need more bacon in your life?  Add a strip to any webpage simply by putting the entire url after http://bacolicio.us/

This delicious fun is brought to you by Bacolicio.us, via one of my favorite design blogs, Swissmiss.

Abel & Cole and the Christmas Goose (Updated with new images!)

    The Friday morning before Christmas, the Carnivore and I received a box of  fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, compliments of Abel & Cole.  Our box contained apples, fairtrade bananas, carrots, clementines, leeks, mushrooms, parsnips, potatoes, red onions, and a Savoy cabbage, with a liberal helping of good English dirt.  Leeks and parsnips are vegetables not usually found in the average American grocery store, so I’d never prepared either before.  Fortunately, my wonderful Fanny Farmer Cookbook provided plenty of guidance, and the Carnivore and I dined like kings for a week on the goodies we’d received. 

 

On a good note

"Bobby Watson’s epic musical tribute to barbecue, a slow-roasted project in the works for four years, is as undeniably joyous as it is ambitious.

The seven-movement "Gates Bar-B-Q Suite" got its first public airing last week when Watson directed his UMKC Conservatory Jazz Band through its high-energy paces for nearly an hour. In a phrase, they cooked."

- The Kansas City Star

40% of Carnivore Project readers are terrible people

That's right, you (both) know who I'm talking about... according to the last poll, 40% of the Carnivore Project readers say that diet matters when choosing their Presidential candidate.

Well, good luck in this one - Obama eats Hamas Waffles and McCain only snacks on babies.

Next poll up.

Athletes & Food

Brief list of the 'tumultuous relationship' between athletes and food.

Also worth noting:

- The Yankees ban candy in the clubhouse.

- Tottenham Spurs and their dodgy lasagna.

- Tony Siragusa and his BBQ.

- Donovan McNabb's mother and soup.